Electronic social networking communication is a popular way for individuals to communicate with one another. Social networking web sites allow users to connect for various personal, professional and common interests. Electronic social networking systems are dependent upon users connecting to and identifying other individuals within the social network as “friends,” those individual with whom they are willing to share greater access to personal information than non-friends.
Most social networking systems include some mechanism for allowing users to find “friends” within the social network. One example of such a friend finding mechanism is an e-mail search query, inviting users to upload addresses, search for names, or access address books run by popular e-mail services, after which the system attempts to match the user addresses with other network members. If addressees in the users contact list are not members of the network, an opportunity to invite the addressee is provided. Other algorithms identify “friends of friends,” or network members which are connected one's own friends within the social network. The more friends one has within the social network, the more powerful the social network becomes.